X-Nico

6 unusual facts about Domenico Scarlatti


Christopher Willis

He is also a musicologist specializing in eighteenth-century music, especially Domenico Scarlatti, although he has written about other subjects including American minimalism.

Musical improvisation

This method was a favorite in compositions by Scarlatti and Handel especially at the beginning of a piece, even when not forming a fugue.

Handel, Scarlatti, and Bach all belonged to a tradition of solo keyboard improvisation.

Piccola Accademia di Montisi

The 2007 Montisi festival marked the 250th anniversary of Domenico Scarlatti’s death with performances by Gustav Leonhardt, Mahan Esfahani, Capriccio Stravagante and others.

Sacheverell Sitwell

Sir Sacheverell Reresby Sitwell, 6th Baronet, CH (15 November 1897 – 1 October 1988) was an English writer, best known as an art critic, music critic (his books on Mozart, Liszt, and Domenico Scarlatti are still consulted), and writer on architecture, particularly the baroque.

The Love of Don Perlimplín and Belisa in the Garden

Lorca, himself a composer, conceived this play with musical interludes (Scarlatti harpsichord sonatas) as well as songs on stage.


Baltasar and Blimunda

Two young lovers interact naturally with historical characters including the composer and harpsichordist Domenico Scarlatti and the priest Bartolomeu de Gusmão, recognized today as an aviation pioneer, all in the shadow of the Inquisition.

Cappella Giulia

Among the Cappella Giulia's choir masters were esteemed names such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1551–1554 and 1571–1594), Giovanni Animuccia, Francesco Soriano, Stefano Fabri, Orazio Benevoli, Domenico Scarlatti, Niccolò Jommelli, Pietro Raimondi, Salvatore Meluzzi, and Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli.

Carlo Grante

He is known as a performer of mainstream classical composers such as Franz Liszt, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Domenico Scarlatti, as well as highly demanding late romantic and 20th-century composers such as Leopold Godowsky, Ferruccio Busoni, George Flynn, Roman Vlad, Paulo Troncon, Michael Finnissy and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji.

Catalogues of classical compositions

For Domenico Scarlatti, the Longo catalogue (L numbers) was in use from 1906, and although it has become generally superseded by the 1953 Kirkpatrick catalogue (K or Kk numbers), L numbers are still seen in references.

Giorgio Pestelli

He is perhaps most notable for his 1967 edition of the 555 keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, which purports to correct some anachronisms and provides an alternative numbering system (distinguished by P numbers) to those of Alessandro Longo (L numbers) and Ralph Kirkpatrick (K or Kk numbers).

Ioana Maria Lupașcu

She released the CD "Live Piano Solo" (2007) with works by Liszt, BachBusoni, Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Silvestri and "Piano Recital" in 2009 (Ed. Casa Radio) with works by Scarlatti, Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, Schubert-Liszt, Skriabin, Rachmaninov, Bartók.

Katona Twins

Their five album releases to date have included works by Handel, Scarlatti, Isaac Albéniz and Ástor Piazzolla.

Les biches

The ballet, written in a light and frothy style, is in turns reminiscent of Mozart, Scarlatti, Franck, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky, mirroring the style of Saint-Saëns's private composition The Carnival of the Animals.


see also